"Let's get back to the main issue first. Princess Hisui came to our side, and she brought good news."
Seeing that Ankh had started chatting with his daughter, Gray quickly pulled the conversation back on track and synchronized the information with the group on the other side of the crystal.
Hisui looked at the children from the future with a complicated expression.
After steadying herself, she took out a small case and said, "This is a key I made from the remains of the Eclipse Gate. As long as a Celestial Spirit is rendered unable to fight, this can forcibly send them back to the Celestial Spirit World and prevent them from entering the human world freely again."
Lucy's face lit up. "That's great! If we have that, we won't have to keep fighting Loki and the others!"
Standing beside Hisui after escorting her here, Wendy looked puzzled.
"But… that still won't solve whatever caused the Celestial Spirits to become corrupted, right?"
"Exactly."
From the crystal ball, Elysia's voice pushed its way into the conversation again.
"So our objective is simple now."
"First, find the Celestial Spirit Sanctuary. That's where the Spirits will perform the ritual for freedom, so they should all be there. We'll take them down one by one and eliminate the crisis."
"And second, we use the Celestial Globe to enter the Celestial Spirit World, place the Eclipse fragments from the future, then find the source of the Spirits' corruption and deal with it."
Mirajane thought for a moment and said, "But we still don't know where the Celestial Spirit Sanctuary is."
"The royal family does," Hisui cut in. "That's one of the reasons I came—besides delivering the key, I came to tell you that."
Ankh shot her a pleased look, then said to the others through the crystal ball, "Perfect. Then let's meet at the Celestial Spirit Sanctuary."
Once Hisui passed along the Sanctuary's location, the two groups set out again.
Yukino was worried about her Spirits, so she volunteered to join the team going after them.
...
Half a day later, Ankh's group was climbing with difficulty up a steep mountain shrouded in gray mist.
"This place is ridiculously hard to find," Gray grumbled as he hauled himself up a slope that was practically vertical.
Hisui's face had gone pale, though Wendy was helping support her as she climbed.
Between breaths, she explained, "The Celestial Spirit Sanctuary is one of the most coveted legendary destinations among adventurers. According to rumor, if you enter it, you can reach the Celestial Spirit World and find treasures and ancient relics strewn across the land."
Juvia recalled what she had seen the last time they visited the Celestial Spirit World and nodded.
"That's true. Gems that are priceless in the human world are practically just ordinary stones over there."
Hisui nodded. "Unfortunately, in over a hundred years, I've never heard of a single adventurer entering the Celestial Spirit Sanctuary and coming back alive."
"We'll be the exception," Ankh said, utterly calm.
Hearing him state it as if it were a fact, Hisui felt some of her anxiety ease.
But when she glanced at Mirajane beside him and then at Anmixiu trailing after them, she let out a faint sigh.
'Don't get discouraged. So what if he already has a son? Just steal Ankh away!' Yusalk's voice buzzed noisily through her mind, delighted to stir up trouble.
Hisui snapped back internally, 'Did you know about this from the start?'
Yusalk played dumb. 'How could I? Know what~?'
She treated that answer like empty air and didn't believe a word of it.
After climbing for what felt like forever, Grinju, who had gone ahead to scout, suddenly brightened and waved them over.
"I found it! The Celestial Spirit Sanctuary!"
Everyone forced themselves onward and followed him to the summit.
Sure enough, at the mountaintop there was a clear spatial rift, forming a black, voidlike gate.
"That should be the entrance," Cana said, glancing around. Then she frowned. "Lucy and the others still aren't here?"
The moment she finished speaking, Lucy's exhausted gasping came from the other side of the ridge.
The group turned and saw Lucy and the rest of them struggling up onto the summit.
At last, the two teams had reunited.
Ankh's eyes lit up the instant he spotted the extra member over there.
Elysia launched herself at him in a flying tackle, and Ankh caught her with a laugh and spun her around in delight.
He had to admit it—having a daughter really did feel different.
This was exactly the kind of sweet, thoughtful little girl he had always dreamed of.
Compared to that, wasn't this infinitely better than that little brat Anmi, who was always rolling his eyes at him?
Anmi and Garell exchanged a glance, and both saw the same bleak resignation in the other's eyes.
That human-faced beast had arrived.
Whatever fun adventure this had been supposed to be was probably over now.
Elysia smiled like a sly little fox as she patted Anmi on the head. "My dear little brother, why don't you look happy to see your big sister?"
The muscles in Anmi's face twitched.
He forced out a painfully stiff smile and replied, "I'm very happy."
The rowdy little troublemakers all fell silent at once.
Only Galena remained her usual obedient, cheerful self, smiling quietly at the side.
The adults, meanwhile, watched all this with increasingly strange expressions.
Juvia leaned toward Gray and whispered, "Even Ankh's daughter is very 'Ankh.' Everyone listens to her."
Gray's face heated up at the warm breath brushing his ear, and he quickly turned his head away.
Juvia blinked, then suddenly remembered that she and Gray had a son together as well.
The next second, she fainted on the spot from sheer happiness.
Princess Hisui, Cana, Wendy, and Yukino stood where they were, staring blankly at one another.
Then they all slowly turned to look at the cluster of perfectly matched couples and the children gathered around them in cheerful chaos.
In the next instant, they all had the same thought:
The wind on this mountaintop was really cold.
Cana cleared her throat and decisively stepped in. "Let's get moving. We still have work to do!"
With that, she rushed through the gate first.
The others quickly followed, crossing through one after another.
After a moment of visual distortion, their sight finally cleared.
What lay before them was a chaotic expanse of gray-green haze.
They were standing on a massive circular platform.
Set in a ring around it were twelve Spirit Gates, each engraved with the crest of its own zodiac sign.
In front of every gate stood a Celestial Spirit, stern and expressionless, waiting for them.
The Spirits stared at the intruders as the gates behind them slowly opened and their bodies gradually sank backward into them.
"So you humans really dared to chase us all the way into the Celestial Spirit Sanctuary..." Loki's voice came from the Leo Gate, full of resentment.
He bared his teeth and snarled at them, "Each of these gates only allows three people through. If you've got the nerve, come in and try it. Let the Spirits show you what true power really means."